


You've Got A Friend In Me

by sparkyneedsadoctor



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23917123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkyneedsadoctor/pseuds/sparkyneedsadoctor
Summary: Alice and Robin have just escaped the mob and now they have to deal with the troll. In the process they learn a little more about each other and get a little closer. Set during The Girl In The Tower.
Relationships: Alice | Tilly/Robin | Margot
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	You've Got A Friend In Me

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are, my first fic on AO3. Excuse me while I second-guess posting this. Hope ya'll enjoy it.

"I think we lost the mob."

Robin's voice broke the silence and Alice looked up. She hadn't even noticed that the car was stopped. The blonde still didn't quite understand what was going on. Why did Robin help her when not too long ago she chose to leave her behind? It didn't make sense.

"Why did you help me out back there?"

"Don't know," the archer said, frowning. "You know, back in Storybrooke, I was kind of a mean girl. All I cared about was being popular."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. It all sounded so stupid now. What did popularity mean in a town full of fairytale characters? So much for wanting to be cool. 

"Yeah, I saw." Alice smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "You got loads of friends."

"I wouldn't really call them friends...but their approval was addicting."

Robin sighed at the memories she was revisiting. "I hated it. So I came here to start over, and then I started seeking my father's legacy for all the same, dumb reasons. But back there, I think I remembered what being Robin Hood is all about: protecting those who need it."

She smiled tentatively at Alice, who smiled back.

"Thank you, for being on my side."

Her voice was soft and quiet, and Robin couldn't help the affection for this strange but wonderful girl welling up inside her. She'd made all the wrong choices when it came to friends in Storybrooke, but befriending Alice? That felt right.

The moonlight was shining through the window and reflecting in Alice's eyes, and Robin would have spent the rest of the night gazing into those brilliantly blue orbs if it weren't for the muffled roar that suddenly split the air through the trees. They jumped and began looking around.

"That's the troll," Alice remarked. "We need to find him before the villagers do!" She looked at Robin, hope in her eyes. "Are you with me?"

Robin's smile widened. "I'm with you."

"Then let's go!"

* * *

They pulled up in front of a tower, the moonlight shining over the tops of the trees making it seem bigger than it really was. It was old and falling apart, yet still seemed powerful and foreboding. There was definitely an air of oppression around this place.

Alice got out of the car and walked slowly towards the tower, never taking her eyes off of it. Robin watched her curiously, wondering what the blonde was thinking. As she looked around, at the crumbling stone and Alice's expression, it hit her.

"This is it, isn't it?"

Alice didn't respond for a moment, still staring up at the looming tower. With the blonde now in front of her, Robin could no longer see her face, but she could imagine the pain and loneliness that must be showing there and her heart beat faster.

"Yep..." Her voice was steady but the archer could tell it was on the verge of breaking. "For the first six thousand, two hundred and five days of my life, this was home sweet tower."

She took a deep, steadying breath as the brunette tried to swallow around the sudden lump in her throat.

"I hate this place," Alice whispered. "I hate its stupid stones and its stupid turret and its dumb, mossy base, and I h-hate..."

Her voice broke off as the pain became too much. She took a couple of shuddering breaths, trying to keep from crying for as long as possible. Robin's own tears had already started to fall.

"...I hate that all I've wanted to do since I left is come back. At least when I was trapped I could have hope that when I got free, everything would be okay. And then I did. And it wasn't."

Robin, who had been rooted to the spot, suddenly started forward towards the distraught girl with her arm outstretched. All she wanted to do in that moment was take all of Alice's pain away.

"Hey, hey, it's okay...” Her own voice sounded as broken as Alice's. The tears were falling faster than before, for both of them now. Robin hated that she had no idea what to say. Her words were a lie, none of this was okay.

Alice whirled around, her expression of pure agony almost paralyzing Robin.

"No, no it's not okay! Who in their right mind wants to be a prisoner?! I've escaped these walls but I'm still bloody trapped!"

Robin stared helplessly, silently cursing the woman who had so cruelly taken away Alice's childhood. She had never considered herself violent or bloodthirsty, but putting an arrow between Gothel's eyes had never seemed so appealing. Her eyes welled up again; she had never felt so heartbroken in her life.

"I'll never be free of it, will I..." Alice sounded, if possible, even more broken, and exhausted. She looked as helpless as Robin felt.

They stared at each other, neither one knowing what to do or say, until a roar—much closer than before—startled them out of their sorrowful moment. A loud crack echoed through the surrounding woods, and an uprooted tree came flying out and crashed through the tower, sending bits of broken stone everywhere.

Robin blinked and ran to the car to grab her bow while Alice hid behind a large chunk of stone.

"Alice, you need to stop the troll, _now_!"

"How am I s'posed to do that, just say 'Hey troll, stop'?!"

It was suddenly quiet save for the noises of the nighttime creatures, and Alice looked around in confusion. Robin looked at the troll then back at the blonde and suddenly understood.

" _Yes_!" Robin breathed. "If anyone can do it, you can do it!"

The troll came stumbling through the trees, shaking the ground around them. Alice looked skeptical and Robin pushed down her fear, hoping her hunch was correct.

"Look, you may be mad, but you have magic; I can sense it!"

Alice still looked uncertain so she kept going.

"Alice, the troll came home because _you_ wanted to come home! And back there, when we needed an escape, the Bug appeared."

"Wh-what are you saying?"

"What if, all those years ago when you wanted to escape the tower, you created the troll?"

"I wished for him on my birthday," Alice said slowly. "Or at least to be free."

"Why has he come back?" Robin asked urgently.

"Because—because today is my birthday," the blonde said softly and sadly. "And I didn't want to be alone."

Robin gave her a small smile. "But you're not alone. I'm here!"

Alice stared at her.

"Don't you see? It was you all along! You saved yourself!"

Alice let out a small laugh and nodded. The troll growled and stomped over to the yellow Bug and picked it up. The two tore their gazes away from each other, watching the troll wind back his arm. He was getting ready to throw the car. 

Alice jumped up and ran out to meet the troll. Robin stayed behind the rock, watching nervously. Breakthrough or not, she was still worried about her friend's safety. 

"Hello, old friend!" Alice yelled out, and the troll paused right before he would have let go of the car.

"It's me, Alice!"

The troll slowly lowered its arm.

"I'm all grown up, aren't I? And I've been so many places since we saw each other last."

As she talked the troll knelt down beside her, smiling.

"It's curiouser, and madder, and sadder—and so much more wonderful out here than I ever imagined. So, thank you. You don't have to worry about me anymore—'cause I'm okay. I promise. I think, after all this time, I'm finally..."

Alice smiled, a smile that was slightly watery.

"Gosh, it's such a big, beautiful word, isn't it? _Free_."

Her smile widened, turning into a full-on grin. It finally felt true. She finally felt free. She felt tears well up once again as she prepared to say goodbye to the first friend she'd ever had. She reached out and stroked the troll's nose, letting him know that she was truly okay. She wasn't alone anymore. She had Robin.

The troll's nose began to glow as Alice's magic flowed through him. He settled back into a kneeling crouch, still clutching the yellow Bug. As he turned to stone, Alice could no longer hold back her tears. She knelt to the ground and wept, hugging her knees.

Robin cautiously made her way towards Alice and knelt down beside her, wrapping an arm around the upset blonde. Alice laid her head on Robin's shoulder and neither of them said a word as they looked upon the troll for one last time. 

* * *

"Make a wish. Just not for another troll." The archer said as she stuck a candle into a cupcake and lit it. 

She held out the treat and Alice looked at Robin and smiled one of her toothy grins before blowing out the candle.

"So? What did you wish for?"

Alice smirked.

"You know that's not how it works," she chided, and Robin chuckled. "But I've got a good feelin' about this one."

"Why don't we take this for the road, and get the hell out of this place?" Robin suggested, standing and helping Alice up. She went off to grab her stuff while Alice stayed behind, looking up at the remains of the tower one last time.

"Goodbye...Tower Girl."

Alice turned her back on the hated structure and went to join Robin. They started off on the path they'd arrived on, heading into the unknown together.

As they walked, Robin thought about everything that had happened. Seeing the tower where Alice had grown up had affected her. Hearing Hook talk about his daughter and her childhood was one thing, seeing it for herself was another. Seeing the tower, hearing Alice cry while talking about it, it made her realize just how real it was. It was traumatizing, and for the most part Alice was good at hiding that fact behind her big, toothy grins.

However, it made Robin realize there was more pain inside Alice than she could ever know, let alone understand. And she'd added to it, back in that damn prison cell. She felt sick with guilt. Robin suddenly stopped walking. She had to get this off her chest.

"Alice, I'm sorry."

Alice, who had stopped walking and looked at Robin with confusion and a little concern, frowned.

"For what?"

"For leaving you behind. I-I never should have left you in that cell. Seeing that tower, I just...hearing your dad's stories was one thing. But now that I know what you went through, like actually know it...what I did back there was so wrong. More than I realized. I'm s _orry_."

Alice gazed at the archer for a moment, her face unreadable. Then, to Robin's astonishment, she smiled.

"It's okay."

Robin blinked. "What? Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"But..." Robin wasn't really sure why she was arguing about this. Alice really did make her head spin, and they'd only known each other for a matter of hours.

"You made up for it," Alice told her cheerfully as they resumed walking.

"How?"

"You showed me how to get out." The blonde said, tapping the bobby pin on the side of her head.

Robin stared at her. "Right...okay then. We're good, just like that?" Her response was a soft chuckle.

"Just like that."

_Well_ , Robin thought, _I'm definitely sticking with this one_. Alice was so unlike anyone she'd ever met. And in that moment Robin wanted nothing more than to protect her new friend from any and every bad thing that wanted to hurt her. Like Gothel. And bullying mobs. And cages or jail cells. Which reminded her...

"I owe you another apology," Robin said with a grimace.

Alice raised her eyebrows. "What's this one for, then?"

"Dropping a cage on you?" Robin replied sheepishly. 

"Yeah, alright," the blonde laughed. "Although that one wasn't so bad either."

"Why, cause I let you out?"

"That, and you were there with me. Being locked up isn't so bad when you're not alone. I'm ignoring the fact that you were on the other side of the bars. And that you ditched me later."

Robin gave her a small smile and reached out to grab Alice's hand, interlocking their fingers. Looking into the other girl's brilliantly blue eyes, she knew she would do anything for her. 

"C'mon," the archer said, turning towards the woods away from the path. 

"Didn't anyone ever tell you wandering off of paths at night is a bad idea?"

"All the time," Robin replied good-naturedly. "But there's something I want to show you, and I know where we are. We're not in danger."

Alice let Robin pull her through the dense forest, trying not to trip. The excitement of the events with the troll had worn off and she was tired. Fortunately, they didn't run far.

Robin stopped in front of a rustic cabin. Alice looked at her friend curiously. This wasn't where she thought they were going. Then again, she'd had no idea where they were going.

"What's going on? What is this place?"

"It's a cabin I found while exploring these woods," Robin explained. "We're not too far from the farm that I live on with my mom. I found this place a while back and I'd come here when I needed to get away. And you need a place to stay."

Alice stared. "Really?"

The archer nodded. She suddenly felt very self-conscious and rubbed the back of her neck shyly. 

"I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. You've survived on your own this long. I just—I just thought you might like a place of your own that you had the freedom to leave at any time."

Alice didn't respond and Robin began to inwardly panic. Was she coming on too strong? This was a bad idea, they hadn't even known each other very long. What was she thinking?

"This...this has to be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

Slowly, Robin's heart rate began to recede. Alice's voice was soft, and she sounded as if she were about to cry. At least it would be happy tears this time.

"I can visit too, since I live nearby. Keep you company and so on."

"I'd like that," Alice smiled, and Robin could swear the night got brighter because of it.

"Will you, uh, stay the night? Now that I've got a choice I really don't want to be alone."

"Of course I'll stay," Robin said softly, her own smile forming. She hoped the double meaning was clear. For once she didn't want to go anywhere. Together the two went into the cabin, each one excited for whatever came next. They were friends now, and who knew what adventures that would bring.


End file.
